Sunday, January 5, 2014

Is Obamacare Your Pimp?

Is Obamacare your pimp? Who is your baby daddy? In many cases it is #Obamacare. If you bought a

subsidized health insurance plan from the Obamacare exchange working taxpayers are funding a portion of your premiums. When you bring a baby into the world you need to tell the insurance company and Obamacare.

Why?

Because Obamacare is your pimp and your baby daddy.

With regular private insurance, parents just notify the health plan. Insurers will still cover new babies, the administration says, but parents will also have to contact the government at some point later on.

Working taxpayers, by way of the federal government, are providing tax breaks (premium subsidies) so you can afford to have health insurance. Since we are paying some of your bills we need to know when you have a baby (or adopt). We become your pimp. We are your baby daddy.

Such changes affect financial assistance available under the law, so the government has to be brought into the loop.

That new baby may mean your taxpayer funded subsidy amount will change. Your gross premiums will increase. That is a given. But your net (after subsidy) may also increase.

But wait. There's more.

It's not just having a new baby that could create bureaucratic hassles, but other life changes affecting a consumer's taxpayer-subsidized premiums. The list includes marriage and divorce, a death in the family, a new job or a change in income, even moving to a different community.

When you sign up for Obamcare the federal government needs to know more about your (formerly) private life. This includes marriage, divorce, children turning 19, moving to a new zip code . . .

The role of the baby daddy is much expanded.

Insurers say computerized "change in circumstance" updates to deal with family and life developments were supposed to have been part of the federal system from the start.

But that feature got postponed as the government scrambled to fix technical problems that overwhelmed the health care website during its first couple of months.

"It's just another example of 'We'll fix that later,'" said Bob Laszewski, an industry consultant who said he's gotten complaints from several insurer clients. "This needed to be done well before January. It's sort of a fly-by-night approach."

No surprises here. Just more examples of incompetence in the Obama administration.

Just like many real life pimps, the Obama administration wants no part of actually taking care of matters. But they do want to know where you are and who you are seeing. Big on promise, short on follow through.